Primate infants behaviorally prefer to look at face-like objects as opposed to non-face objects 32, 33, 34, implying that face-encoding units may already exist in infants. Although visual experience is critical for refining the development of face-selective neurons, several lines of research have demonstrated that primitive face-selectivity is observed even before visual experience 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. However, another view suggests that face-selectivity can innately arise without visual experience 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34. It was also reported that monkeys raised without face exposure did not develop normal face-selective domains 26. Another study of the inferior temporal cortex (IT) in monkeys reported that robust tuning of face-selective neurons is not observed until 1 year after birth 6 and that face-selectivity relies on experience during the early infant years. It was observed that the preferred feature images of face-selective neurons in adult monkeys are those that resemble animals or familiar people depending on individual experiences 25. The experience-dependent characteristics of face-selective neurons imply that visual experience plays a critical role in developing face-selectivity in the brain. Regarding the emergence of neuronal face-selectivity, previous studies have suggested a scenario in which visual experience develops face-selective neurons 24, 25, 26. The observation of this type of intriguing neuronal tuning in the brain has inspired neuroscientists, raising important questions about its developmental mechanism-whether face-selective neurons can arise innately in the brain or require visual experience, and whether neuronal tuning to faces is a special type of function distinctive from tunings to other visual objects. Neurons that selectively respond to faces (face-selective neurons) are observed in various species 21, 22, 23, and they have been considered as the building blocks of face detection 18. The ability to identify and recognize faces is a crucial function for social behavior, and this ability is thought to originate from neuronal tuning at the single or multi-neuronal level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.
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